Celine Boutier is leaning on good memories and familiarity at this week’s ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open as the French star returns to Dundonald Links to defend her crown.
Boutier made it two wins in two weeks at last year’s edition – following up her magnificent Major triumph at The Amundi Evian Championship with a clutch two-shot victory in Ayrshire.
On top of that, no player in the field has a better record at Dundonald Links than Boutier with the World No 7 also finishing runner-up here in 2022.
“It’s very nice to be coming back here,” the defending champion said. “A lot of good memories and especially going around the course, you start remembering some of the shots and holes that you played. So it’s very fun. I feel like I’ve definitely had a lot of success on this course, and it’s great to be able to come back.
“Even knowing where the pins were and what you did strategy-wise, it’s taking a little bit of a load off the first few practice rounds because you definitely feel like you know what you are looking for and you are familiar with the golf course already, so that helps a little bit on the front end.”
Boutier returns to Scotland following an enthralling home Olympics at Le Golf National where she led after the first round before finishing T18.
A much different test awaits the French Major winner this week, however, as the 30-year-old looks to extend her fantastic record at a course she knows all too well.
“I definitely feel like every year, every week, your golf game is slightly different,” Boutier explained. “So you have to adapt to that and make some slight changes sometimes last minute or the week of. It’s always a bit of adjusting.
“I think it’s a lot about the trajectories here. Just keeping the ball like low-ish, especially with the wind and especially around the green as well because it’s a lot more firm, not necessarily a lot of high rough next to the green like last week. So it’s a little bit more like bump-and-run and even putter off the green. So just adjusting to these types of shots, and especially also the bunkers that have a lot of sand and like fine grain.
“It’s part of the experience of Scottish courses. You kind of want to have conditions like that because that’s what makes it so special and that’s also how the courses are designed. I think it’s very nice to be able to play in those conditions because it’s so unique to these types of courses, and that’s also why you come here.”
The 2024 ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open kicks off a fortnight of links action in Scotland with Boutier also set to tee up at the AIG Women’s Open – the final Major of the year which takes place at St Andrews.
She said: “I think this week is definitely a good preparation and good introduction into links golf going into next week, which will be our last Major of the season. You obviously want to do well. Any time you get to play in Europe, you really – as a European, you definitely feel a little bit more support, and you definitely want to play a little bit better than the rest of the year, and then especially in St Andrews, it’s so special.”
Boutier gets her title defence underway at 7:32am local time playing alongside home favourite Gemma Dryburgh and Olympic gold medalist Lydia Ko.
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